This invention relates to heating or cooling apparatus mounted within a suspended ceiling in a home, office, or other building space. In particular, this invention relates to the processing of air through such apparatus.
It has been heretofore known to mount a heating or cooling apparatus in a suspended ceiling of a room or space that is to be heated or cooled. The thus mounted apparatus typically draws air in through an inlet provided in the apparatus. The thus drawn in air is circulated through appropriate heat exchange elements before exiting through one or more outlets provided in the apparatus.
The ceiling mounted apparatus typically includes a fan device for drawing in the air that is to be processed and discharged. This fan device may create a significant suction pressure at the air inlet. This suction pressure can draw the air being discharged from the ceiling mounted apparatus back into the apparatus. Re-circulation of this discharged air back through the heat exchange elements lowers the heating or cooling efficiency of the apparatus. It may also affect the long term integrity of the heat exchange elements that are being exposed to the re-circulated air that does not need to be further heated or cooled.
The potential for re-circulation of discharged air back through an air intake of a ceiling mounted apparatus has been heretofore addressed by providing air outlets that direct the discharged air away from the air intake. It has however been found that this directional discharge is hard to achieve when the air outlets are relatively close to the air inlet.
It is an object of the invention to provide heating or cooling apparatus mounted within a suspended ceiling that maintains a proper distribution of either heated or cooled air that does not interfere with the intake of air into the same apparatus.
It is another object of the invention to provide heating or cooling apparatus for mounting within a suspended ceiling that defines two distinct air flow paths for conditioned air leaving the apparatus that achieve optimal air flow for both heated and cooled air from the ceiling mounted apparatus.